


Cut from the Same Hoth

by mon_cherie



Series: The Fanfic Star Wars Holiday Special 2020 [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Don't repost, Fluff and Angst, Force-Sensitive Finn (Star Wars), Life Day (Star Wars), M/M, Planet Hoth is Cold (Star Wars), Pre-Relationship, light angst though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:35:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27947654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mon_cherie/pseuds/mon_cherie
Summary: With the way that Poe had been excitedly explaining Life Day to him for weeks, Finn figured that it must be a Big Deal. All the talk about decorations, food, gifts, and overall cheer made Finn pretty excited to see what it was all about.That was, before they got sent off on a mission a few days before Life Day.___Week 2 of Krampus 2020 Fluff: Snowed In and/orPresent Wrapping
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Finn
Series: The Fanfic Star Wars Holiday Special 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2042008
Comments: 10
Kudos: 43
Collections: Krampus Kink-a-thon





	Cut from the Same Hoth

**Author's Note:**

> I came up with a slightly crack-y idea over the weekend and then PLOT happened. So have this, with much more angst than originally planned (which was none).
> 
> Canon through TFA. 
> 
> As usual, I do not own Star Wars.

With the way that Poe had been excitedly explaining Life Day to him for weeks, Finn figured that it must be a Big Deal. All the talk about decorations, food, gifts, and overall cheer made Finn pretty excited to see what it was all about. 

That was, before they got sent off on a mission a few days before Life Day. 

Leia had looked apologetic as she summoned them into Command.

“I know that this is not a great time, but one of our allies has reported the location of an artifact that I need the two of you to go grab. Normally, I’d wait a few days, but this is extremely time sensitive.”

Finn nodded. War waited for no one. 

“I want you two to go to Hoth and extract this artifact for me,” Leia continued. “You two will be leaving tomorrow morning. I’m hoping that you two will be back within a week.”

“What sort of artifact are we looking for,” Poe said, frowning at the map of the planet projected up in front of them.

Leia looked over at him. “You will know it when you get there.”

Finn wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but figured that Poe did. Maybe it was a Resistance thing. Maybe it was above his pay grade. Poe was a Commander, after all. Maybe he knew.

“It should be on Echo Base,” Leia said. “I want you two to pack warmly, and make sure to bring extra rations in case anything happens. Hoth isn’t exactly known for its hospitality, after all.” She smiled wryly at that, as if remembering something. 

“At least it’s not Jakku,” Finn said. Leia stifled a laugh at that.

“I think you’re going to regret saying that soon, buddy,” Poe responded.

“Dameron, I want you to fly the two of you over to Hoth on one of our shuttles, it’ll be better equipped to handle the environment over there in case the weather doesn’t cooperate before you get to Echo Base.”

“Yes, sir,” Poe said.

Leia turned to Finn. “Finn, I want you to go with Dameron. I know that you’ve just finished physical therapy, but I think it’ll be good for you to start going out on missions.” 

“Yes, sir,” Finn said. It was true, he was getting a bit restless. Sure, he had been giving all the possible information to Intelligence about the First Order that he knew, and sure, Leia had been inviting him into various tactical meetings when forming strategies against the Order, but he felt like he could be doing _more_. Spending all his free time reading about what was going on in the galaxy was great, but didn’t feel like fighting, even if it was his own private rebellion against the Order that had taken away everything from him.

She gave them a gentle smile. “You two gentlemen should go and get packing. You’re leaving at 0800 hours. May the Force be with you.”

* * *

“I’m a bit sad that we’re missing Life Day,” Poe said the next day, while they were on the shuttle on their way to Hoth. “It’s your first one!”

Finn shrugged. “I haven’t ever had one, so it’s fine.” Poe looked over at him with a sort of sad smile.

“We should do something when we get back.” Poe said. Then he laughed. “I still have to wrap your present!” 

Finn froze. “Wrap? We have to wrap presents?”

Poe shrugged. “Well, you don’t _have_ to, but it’s always a fun thing to do. Make it so there’s a bit of an element of suspense.” He winked at Finn. 

Finn nodded, although he was panicking internally. He didn’t know how to wrap presents. He wasn’t even sure what to wrap presents _with_. He thought about the present that he had brought with him, and resolved to figure it out when they got to Hoth. Worst case, he’d just give the present to Poe. Not having suspense wasn’t the worst thing, right?

They made it to Echo Base the next day, Poe expertly parking the shuttle where the old hangar was, then closing the doors of the hangar. “We’re not sure when we’re going to be able to leave,” he explained, “and Hoth is known for having massive snowstorms.”

“This weather is awful,” Finn said, wrapping himself in another layer. Hoth was bitterly cold, the cold reaching down into his bones. He had already layered two sweaters and was trying to figure out if three were too many sweaters. 

“Still think it’s better than Jakku?” Poe’s teasing voice was light, and wrapped around him like another layer of warmth.

“Oh, without a doubt. Nothing can ever be worse than Jakku.”

They decided to get themselves situated in the new Base, exploring around to get a feel for a layout, splitting up in the hopes of being able to find the artifact more quickly.

Finn took a methodical approach, slowly going from room to room. He had found a room filled with flimsi, several bunks, a room that was previously used as a sort of conference room, and what used to pass for a Command center. When he got back to the shuttle, he saw Poe poking through his bag in search of another sweater, and nearly had a heart attack when he thought that Poe might’ve seen his gift. They were very open about sharing clothes, but Finn had forgotten that fact when he put Poe’s present in his bag. When Poe left to go explore some more, Finn grabbed the present and went to the conference room, stashing it in a hidden corner. 

On the second day, Poe commandeered one of the bunks, doing some maintenance on the facilities in the room so that they’d have some semblance of warmth. Finn made a mental note to have Poe teach him how to do that sometime in the future.

On the third day, they found another hangar on the opposite side of the base.

“Woah,” Finn said quietly. “There’s a ship here.” 

“A ship?” Poe walked over. “I know that scavengers established temporary bases here once the Rebellion left to scavenge all the AT-ATs. Given that, I don’t think this ship would be in working condition, but I guess we can take a look at it, I’m sure there’d be - oh.”

Finn looked over. Poe had frozen in the doorway, staring at the ship. 

“Poe?” 

“It’s an A-Wing,” Poe said. “I learned how to fly in one. My mom flew one during the rebellion. They’re not used as much anymore. I haven’t seen one since...well, since I learned how to fly.”

“Ah,” Finn said quietly. What else could be said? He knew that Poe's mother had passed away when he was a child, but Poe didn’t talk about his mother too much, and always took on a bit of a quiet, melancholic tone when he did.

“Anyway,” Poe said, seeming to regain a bit of his typical more upbeat personality. “Let’s see how much of it is still intact.” He wandered over to the side of the ship, while Finn decided to take a look in the cockpit. 

The cockpit seemed to mostly be in working order, with nothing noticeably ripped out or missing. Finn had been catching up on learning about various things since waking up, but knew that he would need Poe to confirm that everything inside looked normal. Besides, the engine or other parts of the ship could easily have been scavenged already. 

Finn was about to turn around and leave when a spurt of color caught his eye. He walked up closer to the dash, and noticed a piece of- flimsi? Flimsi hadn’t been used in years from his research, but if this ship hadn’t been touched since the days of the Rebellion, then maybe it was an artifact from back then. He carefully pulled out the piece of flimsi from where it was stuck in the dash.

He stared at the picture. A work done by a child, it was a very basic drawing of...a farm? Finn had never seen a farm, but he had seen some holos, and this seemed to be an imitation of what he had seen. Standing in front of the farm were three stick figures, all crudely drawn, all in different colors. The purple stick figure, with a shock of curly hair, was labeled “Ma”, the green stick figure, tallest and drawn in the steadiest hand, was labeled “Da”, and a small orange stick figure, almost tiny in comparison, was labeled, in shaky letters, “POE”. 

Finn’s heart stopped. “Poe,” he called out.

“Yeah?” 

“I think you need to see this.”

Poe came climbing up the ladder to the cockpit in the next minute, looking rather excited. “Did you find what we were looking for?”

“No, but I found-” he thrust the flimsi carefully at Poe. “-this. Is this what I think it is?” 

Poe stared at it for a long time, silent. 

“Is this your mom’s old A-wing, Poe,” Finn asked gently. Poe continued to look at the drawing, not showing any indication that he had heard anything Finn had said. Finn waited patiently while Poe gathered his thoughts.

Finally, Poe looked up, blinking rapidly. 

“Yeah, buddy,” he said hoarsely. “I think it is.”

“Do you want to look around in the cockpit? Maybe see if everything is in working order here? I’ll go see if there are other things in that little office over there.” 

“Yeah,” Poe said. “Yeah, I’ll take a look.” Finn clasped his back, then left Poe there alone to gather his thoughts. 

He remembered a phrase that he had come across in his reading. Saudade. He remembered being confused at how someone could have a longing for something they had never known. Watching Poe come to the closest he had seen to falling apart in his weeks of knowing him filled Finn with an ache that he couldn’t voice. Finn had never known his parents, but he realized now that this must be how it must feel to experience saudade. He wished, not for the first time, that he had known what these experiences of having a family might feel like. 

Of course, remembering his parents only to have them cruelly taken away to serve the First Order must be worse. He couldn’t imagine what Poe was going through, seeing this drawing that his mother must have placed on her dash, to remind her while she was flying of what she was fighting for. Of who was waiting at home for her. 

Well, seeing the flimsi gave him a good idea on what to do about wrapping his present. He walked out of the office quickly, back down to the room where he had stashed his present for Poe. Looking around to make sure that Poe wasn’t around, he walked quickly back to the room where he had found all the flimsi. 

He waded his way through star charts, ship schematics, and a variety of logs that looked like it could be interesting to look at later before he found some maintenance reports. Surely, no one would miss those. He looked around for some adhesive and came up with engine tape, which he could admit wasn’t the best look, but was better than nothing.

A half hour and several bouts of swearing later, Finn looked at his slightly lumpy package with a grin. He had done it. Now, he only had to make sure that Poe wouldn’t find it before Life Day.

He looked around the cabinets in the room. There were a lot of things that had been filed by hand back in the day. He slowly took a circle around the room, considering each one before he came upon it.

_Sanitation Reports_

Perfect. There was no way that Poe would look at those, and he’d easily remember where he stored it. He opened the filing cabinet and placed the present under the reports.

When he made his way back to the office, he noticed that Poe had left the cockpit of the A-Wing and was running his hand along the side of the ship. That wasn’t unusual for Poe, sometimes he’d do that with his own Black One, but the look of utter longing on his face was something Finn wasn’t sure how to deal with.

It felt private. Finn turned around and began thoroughly looking through the office to give Poe his privacy. He only looked up when he heard the door open, and Poe stepped in.

“It’s set to snow really hard tonight,” Poe said quietly. “I don’t know if it’ll let up in the next few days or not.”

“Well, we still haven’t found what we’re looking for, so we’re going to be on the base for the next few days anyway,” Finn said lightly. “Besides, I think the General knew. She told us to pack for extra rations just in case, didn’t she?”

Poe smiled, but it still had a hint of sadness to it. “The General always knows.”

Finn nodded, standing up. “You haven’t eaten yet, have you?” When Poe shook his head, Finn led him back to their bunk, grabbing some ration bars, but then held Poe’s hand and brought him back to the hangar, sitting them under the A-Wing, side by side.

They sat there, eating quietly. Finally -

“Did I ever tell you about my first flight?” Finn looked up from his ration bar. He hadn’t.

“I was four, and still too young to do anything besides hold onto the steering control, but my mom had brought me up in her A-Wing.” Poe said quietly. “I remember sitting on her lap, and how she’d wrap her hands around mine to help me steer the ship. It’s one of my first memories.”

Finn nodded, waiting for Poe to continue. He desperately hoped that Poe wasn’t about to ask about his first memory. 

“I always feel a bit of that feeling when I’m flying, you know? It must sound so ridiculous, a fully grown adult pilot still thinking of their flight where they weren’t even really flying -”

“No, I think I get it,” Finn said thoughtfully. “When we were flying here, I felt a bit of the same exhilaration from the flights that I remember the best.”

“Yeah?” Poe looked over at him.

“Yeah,” Finn said. “Of course, the flights I remember the best are the flight we had with the TIE where I was terrified out of my mind and the ones with Rey and Han and Chewie in the Falcon, running from the Order, but I remember a bit of the fascination I had, seeing the world for the first time. The kinship I had with the people I was traveling with,” here, he bumped his shoulder against Poe’s, “despite the fact that we had known each other anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, but it had a sort of magical feeling to it anyway. I imagine it feels something like that.”

Poe smiled. “Yeah buddy, it really does.” Then a pause. “I’m sad that you decided not to be a pilot.”

Finn laughed. “I also feel a bit of that terror every time I fly, so I think I’ll stick with being firmly on the ground whenever I can. Besides, that talent that you and Rey and Han have? That’s not something you can train.”

Poe snorted. “I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration.” A pause. Poe bumped his shoulder against his. “Thank you, Finn.”

Finn bumped his shoulder in return. “No need for thanks.”

* * *

That night, Finn heard a noise while sleeping. Instantly on high alert, he stood and grabbed his blaster. Cocking his head, he listened again for the noise. 

It sounded a bit like singing. It certainly didn’t sound particularly menacing. It seemed almost to beckon him. 

He decided against waking Poe up for now, assuming that the threat was minimal. He might regret it later, but he didn’t think there would be that many things that could be on Hoth. From his research, tauntauns and wampas didn’t sing, which would be the most likely things to be on this planet.

He really hoped it wasn’t a wampa. He wasn’t sure Poe would ever forgive him if he got eaten by a wampa while Poe was asleep.

Then again, he wasn’t sure he’d forgive himself if he got eaten by a wampa after going through the abandoned base on a hellish ice planet in the middle of the night. Taking a deep breath, he resolved to run away bravely if he saw a wampa. He could forgive himself for that one. He’d still be alive to forgive himself, after all. 

The singing grew louder as he slowly made his way through the base, allowing the noise to direct him through the corridors. He entered a room that was filled to the brim with crates. It was deep enough into the base that he figured scavengers must not have bothered to go that far, although he could hear Rey in his mind berating him for making assumptions about scavengers being anything less than thorough. 

He sent out a silent apology to his best friend for making assumptions while he took an inventory of the room, looking around for what was singing to him. Some of the crates were stacked almost to the ceiling, while some were strewn haphazardly around. Some were opened, showing packing material, or various gadgets that looked to be dated now but he knew that Poe would still be able to recognize some of them. 

It took a slow circle around the room, passing each of the crates in turn before he found what he was looking for. The nondescript crate was hidden behind a wall of crates that were stacked up past his hips, but it was definitely the one that was singing at him. Trying to move the first crate in the wall just confirmed what he already suspected - these crates were filled with something very, very heavy.

He sighed and resigned himself to getting Poe to help him in the morning. They were most likely still going to be snowed in, after all. He took a note of which room he was in, and then trudged his way back to his bed, resigning himself to hearing the singing all night.

“You look like bantha crap, buddy,” Poe said the next morning, although not unkindly. “Kriff Finn, did you get any sleep?”

Finn blinked blearily up at Poe. “I couldn’t. The singing was too loud.”

Poe stared at Finn as if he had lost it. “The singing?”

“Yeah,” Finn said, punctuating his words with a yawn. “I found what we’re looking for, but I couldn’t get rid of all the stuff around it, so I decided to wait until you woke up before dealing with it.”

“I...see. Do you want to show me what it is so we can deal with the singing and you can sleep a bit?”

Finn nodded, leading Poe across the base into the room. When they got to the stack of crates, Finn pointed out the one they were looking for. 

“It’s that one,” Finn said. “Shouldn’t be a wampa, right?”

Poe looked at Finn with a frown. “A wampa?”

“Yeah, well, I heard noises last night and Hoth pretty much only has wampas and tauntauns, right? And tauntauns are herbivores, but wampas aren’t....” he trailed off into another yawn.

Poe looked like he was trying really hard not to laugh, and failing miserably. 

“Alright buddy, let’s move these crates aside so we can grab that one. If you say it’s singing, I’ll believe you.”

Slowly, they moved the crates around one by one. When Poe got to the one that was singing, he froze. Finn stilled next to him.

“Poe?”

“I think I know why you think it’s singing,” Poe said slowly. Unlike the previous crates, Poe picked up this one easily by himself. He began walking back to their rooms.

“Poe?” Finn followed him, not sure what he was missing.

“Is it still singing, Finn?” Finn stopped. He was so tired he didn’t even realize that the singing had stopped. It had stopped singing since Poe had picked it up.

“No, it’s not.”

They made it back to their room in relative silence. Once they got back, Poe placed the crate gently on the ground, then turned to Finn, leading him to the bed before pushing him gently down towards it.

“You should get some sleep Finn. I’ll go check and see if the snow has let up any. I’ll wake you up in time for dinner if need be.”

Finn nodded, falling asleep before he even got comfortable on the bed. 

When Finn opened his eyes again, he noticed that Poe was sitting on the bunk across from him, reading something on a datapad, wearing...a green sweater?

Poe looked up, noticing that he was awake, placing the datapad on the table next to his bunk. “You’re awake! Happy Life Day, Finn!” 

“Is that BB-8?” Poe looked down at his sweater and grinned.

“Yes! Jess made it for me two Life Days ago.”

“You brought that with you on this mission?” 

“Well, I knew that we would have to dress warmly, and I didn’t have that many sweaters. Didn’t think it was worth bothering the quartermaster when I had this one.”

Finn smiled. “It’s a cute sweater.”

“It’s the best sweater,” Poe said. “Now, I know this isn’t the Life Day that I promised you, but, I was poking around some of the rooms and I found this!” He pulled out a bottle of Corellian Whiskey. 

Finn stared at it, moving over to sit next to Poe. “Poe, how long has that been here?”

Poe shrugged. “I cleaned the dust off of it, and it’s still sealed, so I assume it’s still good to drink. Doesn’t whiskey get better with age? Besides, this planet is basically one large cooler. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Finn didn’t have the same amount of confidence that Poe had about the whiskey, but decided to just go along with it.

“And, well, we don’t have a variety of good food, but we do have ration bars in three different flavors...so I guess that’ll have to do until we get back to base.”

Finn laughed. “What a treat.” He knocked his shoulder lightly against Poe’s when the pilot’s face fell. “No, really. In the Order, all of our rations were flavorless. The texture was awful.”

Poe’s face scrunched in distaste. “Man, I hope the Order burns when it goes down.”

“Cheers to that, Poe.” Poe brightened at that, breaking open the whiskey and raised the bottle in a toast before taking a swig.

“Ah, still tastes good.” He offered the bottle to Finn. “Want some?”

Finn stared at the bottle some more. “I think I’m good for now. Besides, I haven’t eaten yet.” He grabbed a ration bar from the little pile next to them. It was labeled blumfruit, and he nibbled on it while Poe sat back against the bed and grabbed a jogan fruit flavored ration bar. Finn let his mind wander back to the morning.

“Hey Poe...how did you know that the crate stopped singing when you picked it up?”

Poe took a drink of the whiskey before responding. “I’m not Force-sensitive, at least I don’t think so, but I grew up near a Force tree. Luke Skywalker gifted one to my Ma, and she made sure to teach me how to take care of it when I was growing up.”

Finn nodded. He wasn’t sure what this had to do with the crate, but he could listen to Poe talk about himself for hours. Forever, even.

“That crate feels like the tree when I touch it,” Poe said quietly. “My guess is that it was singing to you because you’re Force-sensitive.”

Finn froze. “I’m- what?”

“Force-sensitive. Like Rey. Like the general.”

“I-I can’t be Force-sensitive. I’m not like Rey, I couldn’t even go up against Kylo Ren without nearly dying, I -”

“Finn,” Poe interrupted. “You’re amazing. Not many people could hold their own against Kylo Ren like you did without any training. Besides, you don’t have to be a Jedi like Rey is going to be. You could be like the General. She’s Force-sensitive, and she’s not a Jedi. If you really don’t want to, you don’t have to do anything with it. You could say ‘kriff it all’ and just be like the rest of us.”

Finn swallowed. “That’s...a lot.”

“Yeah, I bet it is.” Poe offered him the bottle of whiskey again. “Sure you don’t want any?”

Finn grabbed the bottle. “Actually, I think a drink sounds good.” Poe chuckled as he took a swing from the bottle.

“I promise that I’ll show you a proper Life Day when we get back to base. I have your present and everything, I just need to wrap it.” 

Finn perked up, remembering that he had brought his gift with him. “That reminds me, wait here.” Finn stood and made his way out of the room, down two sets of hallways and into the room where he had stashed his gift. 

He came back and handed the lumpy gift over to Poe, who stared at it in bemusement. 

“What’s this, buddy?”

“It’s your gift!” Finn said. “I wasn’t sure how to wrap gifts, but then I saw a room with all sorts of flimsi. I considered using star charts or some of the ship schematics, but figured you might want to read those later, but I figured maintenance reports should be okay. I even checked the dates on these, and they’re from pretty early on, so there shouldn’t be anything that would be too relevant to us today.”

Poe turned the present over in his hands, grinning to himself. “You judged me for bringing this sweater and you brought my gift all the way out here?”

Finn felt his face heat up slightly. “Well, I wasn’t sure - I figured since you really liked Life Day, that I’d bring it along in case we were going to be longer than a few days. You seemed pretty bummed that we weren’t gonna be on base for it.”

“No, no,” Poe laughed. “This is great Finn, now I feel like I should’ve brought your present with me.”

“You can always give it to me when we get back to base.”

Poe tore into the present eagerly. He looked at the group of tiny holoprojectors sitting in a box and took them out, one at a time.

“I heard that typically, people use these to store images of things that they love, people that they love,” Finn said awkwardly. “I know that you don’t have any in our room, so I asked around some people who were going on missions that might be able to pick some up for me, then had BB-8 help me load some images onto them.”

Poe took out the holoprojectors, clicking them on one at a time. A holo of Black Squadron. A holo of the General. A holo of his parents. A holo of Finn and BB-8.

“I wasn’t sure what else you’d want, so I did a couple, then told Bee to upload whatever they thought you might like on the others. If you don’t like them, Bee said they’d be able to override it and upload whatever you want.”

Another holo of Finn, this time at a different angle. Finn stared blankly as Poe kept pressing the holos and they were all Finn, all at different angles. 

“Where did they have a chance to get all those holos,” Finn muttered. He raised his voice. “Um, I hope it’s good.”

“Buddy,” Poe said, his voice thick with emotion. “This is a great gift.” He sat there, bathed in the glow of the holos for a second, staring at each of them in turn. 

Then Poe perked up and looked at him. “Did you say that there were ship schematics in the room you got the reports from?” 

Finn nodded. “Take me there.” Poe demanded, grabbing the bottle of whiskey and a handful of ration bars. Finn shook his head with a smile, grabbing a few bars before leading Poe over to the room. _What an absolute dork,_ he thought fondly.

So that was how Finn spent the rest of his first Life Day, drinking Corellian whiskey and eating ration bars while he looked over star charts and read up on some of the logs on missions long ago. The whole time, his hand had not left Poe’s, the pilot eagerly devouring ship schematics and battle strategies from the Rebellion era. Finn looked over and smiled at Poe, watching the way his face lit up when he found some gem that he didn’t know about before, feeling a warmth of affection for the pilot.

They left Hoth two days later, the snow finally having cleared enough for them to be able to take flight. 

Before they left, Finn found Poe in the hangar with the A-Wing. Poe turned around when he heard Finn’s footsteps.

“Just saying goodbye,” Poe said hoarsely.

“We could ask the General to come back one day for the ship,” Finn suggested, but Poe shook his head.

“It’s just a ship,” Poe said quietly. “Besides, I like to think that my Ma is with me whenever I fly.”

“I think she is,” Finn said. “I think she’s watching over you, the best pilot in the galaxy, making sure that you always get to come home to the ones you love.”

Poe looked over at him and smiled, walking over and taking his hand.

“Come on,” he said quietly. “Let’s go home.”

* * *

By the time they got back to D’Qar, they were weary and tired of eating ration bars, but relieved to finally be back. They gave their report to the General, and she opened the crate they brought her, examining the contents with a smile. 

“Excellent work, gentlemen. Take two days off to recover.” She gave them a gentle smile. “Dismissed.” Finn gave a glance at Poe, and Poe nodded in understanding, clasping his shoulder before leaving with a grin while Finn stood there hesitantly.

Leia didn’t look surprised to see him still there a few minutes later. “Something on your mind, Finn?”

“Yeah, just something that came up during the mission that Poe had said might be true, and I wanted to know-”

“Whether you were Force-sensitive?” Leia asked. She smiled at his look of surprise. “Why did you think I asked to send you there, Finn?”

“I-I thought it was because you wanted me to get used to running missions for the Resistance…” She placed her hand on his shoulder.

“Finn,” she said, “You’re a brilliant young man, and you’ve given your life over to war for so long. You don’t have to fight for the Resistance if you don’t want to.

“I’ve known that you’re Force-sensitive since we met, Finn,” Leia continued gently. “The fact that you were able to use the lightsaber Maz gave you not only on Takodana, but also on Starkiller? Only confirm that you’re quite the powerful Force user if you wanted to be. Now, you don’t have to be, if you don’t want to, Force knows that I didn’t become a Jedi, but if you want, I could help you with whatever Force training you’d wish to pursue. And if you do want to follow in the footsteps of the Jedi, whenever Rey comes back with my wayward brother, I’ll see what I can do to make that happen.”

Finn nodded, feeling overwhelmed again. “Can I have time to think about it?”

“Of course, Finn. Take all the time that you want.”

“General?”

“Hm?” 

“That box, it sang to me. Will that happen every time I interact with something with the Force?”

Leia smiled knowingly. “So, the Force is in everything, with some having a stronger connection to the Force than others. But no, all Force imbued objects won’t sing at you. I daresay that the thing that was singing to you was probably this,” She pulled out a pair of lightsabers and held them out to him.

Finn took them hesitantly in his hands, and felt the lightsabers sing in recognition. He thumbed them on almost absentmindedly, staring at the white glow in awe. One blade was shorter than the other, but both thrummed with energy. 

It felt right.

People in Command were turning over to look at him, so Finn shut the lightsabers off, handing them back to Leia. 

“They were last owned by a very gifted Force-user and they haven’t been seen in a while. When I heard from one of our allies that it had been moved onto Hoth, I knew that I had to act, and I had a feeling that you’d be a good fit for this mission.” She smiled. “It looks like I had a good feeling.” 

Finn nodded, at a loss for words.

“Take your time to think about it Finn. Whatever the choice is, it’s completely up to you.”

Finn took his time going back to his room, choosing to wander around and let his thoughts roam for a bit. When he realized that he wasn’t going to get closer to any decisions today, he decided to head back to his room, more than a little frustrated. 

He stopped in the doorway. Poe looked up from where he was sitting on the floor, chatting with BB-8.

“Oh hey buddy, you’re here!” 

“Poe..what’s this?” Their room had glowed with soft lights. On the floor, Poe had laid out a blanket, spreading on top of it several small dishes, the aroma wafting over already reminding Finn that they had missed lunch and were close to missing dinner. There were also glasses of a liquid that Finn couldn’t identify.

Next to Poe were two presents, lumpily wrapped. He could tell that there was engine tape holding it together. 

“I promised you Life Day, and even though it’s a bit late, I thought we could do something ourselves this year. I had to borrow the lights from Jess and sweet talk the cooks into giving me some of this food, but-anyway, do you like it?”

Finn smiled as Poe rambled on nervously. “It’s great, Poe.” He stepped inside, sitting across from Poe on the floor. 

They sat there eating while BB-8 played some music in the background. It felt...cheerful. Warm. The complete opposite of Hoth. Finn tried a variety of what Poe dubbed “classic Life Day foods, only you know, classics that we adapted from Wookie dishes because our stomachs can’t really process everything that they can”, and thoroughly enjoyed the drink that Poe said was Varactyl Egg Nog.

“Here,” Poe handed him the first gift, which was much flatter than the second. Finn opened it to find a datapad. 

“I know you’ve been reading a lot about all the things you’ve missed growing up, but I wanted to show you that you can also consume media for your enjoyment. I put some novels, holos, and some music on that datapad. Some of my favorites just to get you started, and once you have a better idea of the things that you’d enjoy, you can ask Bee to help you find more.”

BB-8 beeped in agreement. [Friend-Finn can ask BB-8 for help anytime!]

“This one is more of a fun gift that I found when I was on Dantooine a few weeks back,” Poe said, picking up the second gift. “I was thinking about it, and, well, you never got the chance to be a kid, and I happened to be wandering the stalls of a market when I had a few hours of downtime, and I came across this. It reminded me of something I had when I was younger, and it was just so soft, and I promise that I got it before we went on this mission-”

“I’m sure I’ll like it, Poe,” Finn interrupted. He figured if he let Poe flail for too long, the poor guy was going to talk himself into a grave. He carefully pulled apart the wrapping before looking at the gift and laughing.

“Oh, I’m sure you find this hilarious now,” Finn said, staring at the stuffed wampa in delight. The wampa was clearly made for a child, the normally terrifying features completely gone in a much friendlier version.

“I’ll protect you from any wampas that might want to eat you, including that one,” Poe said with a smile. “Are you going to give him a name?”

Finn thought about it. “I think I’ll name him Hoth.” Then, in a spurt of bravery, he leaned over and kissed Poe on the cheek. 

“Thank you, Poe.” Poe turned slightly pink, taking a sip of his Varactyl Egg Nog. But he looked exceedingly pleased, so Finn counted that as a win.

“Don’t mention it. Happy Life Day, Finn.”

Finn grinned back. “Happy Life Day, Poe.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed reading!!
> 
> Thanks to [mssrj_335](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mssrj_335/) and [The Carrot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCarrot/) for organizing this event! 
> 
> Feel free to come say hi on [tumblr](https://evolution-of-magic.tumblr.com/)!


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